The Writing & Other Projects of Elizabeth Barrette

This poem was written outside the prompt calls, inspired by the "forced to participate in illegal/hurtful activity" square in my 7-31-14 card for the hc_bingo fest. It has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics. Note that this poem takes place several decades prior to the contemporary time when most of the series is set.

WARNING: This poem features some intense topics and graphic descriptions. Some of the warnings are spoilers; highlight to read them. Topics include organized crime, violent death, corpses, street children, homelessness, child abuse and exploitation, tragic memories, use of telepathy for mental influence, and other challenges. Both vengeance and a happier ending are supplied. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your mindstate before deciding whether to read further.

"Whose Conscience Approves"

It was autumn when the bodies began to appearand the Boss took note of the matter.

"Go and find out why this is happening,"he said to Il Dottore. "I trust you to get to the bottom of this."

They made their way to the squalid alleywhere Giuditta stood over the latest corpse,her patchwork leather coat pulled closeagainst the cold, cutting wind.

Ciottolo had pulled up the collar of his long woolen coat, and Il Dottorefelt grateful for his own cashmere overrobe.The half-mask kept his cheeks warmbut did nothing for his chin.

The corpse lay coated with frost,diamond over the waxy skin,ruby where blood had frozenbefore it had time to dry.

Probable cause of death: exsanguination.

Il Dottore moved closer, circling the body,and noticed oddities in the way it lay -- hollows at pelvis and chest, yes, and a flattened spot where head met pavement.

Possible cause of death: blunt trauma.

"Let me show you something," Giuditta said solemnly,picking up a slat of wood to shift the dead man's jacket.

Below the stiff cloth, Il Dottore could see a woundas if something small but incredibly powerfulhad punched through the ribcage.

He shivered, but knelt to take a closer look."Ciottolo, shine a light on this, if you would,"he said, and the narrow beam revealeddisturbing new evidence beside the rupture:knuckle marks, a clear row of rounded bruises.

From a tiny hand, barely half the size of his own.

Il Dottore withdrew a ruler from his pocketand measured the marks, just to be sure,but the evidence was incontrovertible:the tall, beefy man at their feethad been beaten to death by a child.

Il Dottore snapped a few picturesto document the scene for the Boss.These streets were theirs to protect.

Then he moved away, wedging himselfinto a nearby doorway for protection and support."Stand guard," he told Ciottolo as he closed his eyes."I need to scan the area for our perpetrator."

Hundreds of minds filled the neighborhood,most of them occupied with everyday concerns.Il Dottore filtered them out and concentratedon the most sad, anxious, and angry ones.

Here was a widow grieving her husband's death,a little girl terrified of the rats in her apartment,a bitter young man beating his wife.

Spiraling outward, Il Dottore founda cluster of children, one of them a tight knotof fear and anger and guilt wrapped arounda solid, shining core of integrity.

"I have a direction," said Il Dottore as he opened his eyes and pushed awayfrom the sheltering embrace of the doorway.

Ciottolo and Giuditta followed him to an abandoned parking lot behind a closed shop, yellow grass peeking through its broken pavement,where several street children scavenged amongstthe splintered wooden crates and broken glass.

None of them were dressed properly for the weather,boys in shirtsleeves and girls in summer dresses,several of them without socks or shoes.

One boy stopped to stare at them, half hidingbehind a flagpole and clinging to it for support.He wore a man's undershirt hanging off his scrawny formand tattered pants held up with a piece of twine.Still he faced them with a solemn, piercing gaze.

Il Dottore plucked a handkerchief from his pocket,its Roman baroque design of dark gold and indigo showing boldly against the yellow Italian silk.

With deft gestures he shaped it into a puppetand began to perform, capering about the lot.

The boy watched in rapt fascination but did not approach, even when the puppet beckoned to him.

Il Dottore reached out with his power,touching the outermost edges of the boy's mind,to see how the child would respond.

He swayed against the flagpole, yearning forward,held back only by his grip and fear born of bitter experience.

Il Dottore touched him again, a gentle caressto feel for the lines that held him together,deftly sorting through the fears to nudge them asideand wrapping the boy's desire around a mental fingertip -- there, too, a thread of hope, fine as spidersilk --he gathered that up as well.

Il Dottore gave a gentle tug on the strands he held.urging the child to come toward them.

This time the resistance came from a deep wellof sorrow and a sense of worthlessness,shored up by determination not to appear weak.

The boy has backbone, Il Dottore thought fondly.There are not many who can resist me.

The telepath smoothed away the child's concernsto reveal more of the longing and hope, and buried so far below that it was all but forgotten,a strand of skin-hunger which Il Dottore addedto the growing bundle in his grasp.

He beckoned again, drawing the stringsas delicately as those of a marionette.Come to me, Il Dottore coaxed.

The boy had let go instantly and backed away."I'm sorry I'm sorry I didn't mean to it just happens," he babbled, pressing himself against the wall.

The telepath furled his power around the panicky child,taking a firmer grip this time. "Hush, my boy,nobody is angry with you," Il Dottore assured him.

"Heard that before." Little fingers plucked at the short sleeves of the t-shirt,trying to pull them down far enough to hide the bruises just above each elbow.Rings of fading blue mottled the wrists, but fortunately no injuries in need of immediate care.

"You've been keeping some rough company, then,"Il Dottore observed. He tucked a fingertip inside the V-neck of the shirt, shifting the collar to show more marks where the boy's neck met his shoulder.

The child flinched but did not pull away.After a moment, when the stranger's handoffered no threat, he drifted toward the touchuntil he came to rest against Il Dottore's front.Even that slight, voluntary contact made him shiver.

"You're cold," Il Dottore observed. "That's no good.Here, you may borrow my robe." He shrugged offthe black cashmere and wrapped it around the boy,using that as an excuse to gauge his size more closely.

According to the child's memory, he was ten years old, but Il Dottore could see that he stood well under 130 centimeters and wouldn't have weighed 20 kilograms soaking wet.The hands were small, but the wristbones above them jutted out and the feet were enormous, hinting at future size like a mastiff puppy tripping over his own paws.

Yet there was no mistaking the wild surge of powerwhose strength had sent them both sprawling.

"It's too good for me," the boy whispered,but he clung to the soft cashmere anywayas if trying to lose himself inside it.

"I think it looks very fine on you," Il Dottore said,"though I admit you may need time to grow into it."The hem nearly touched the ground, and the sleevescovered everything but the grubby fingertips.

A faint giggle reassured him thatthe child's sense of humor had survivedwhatever horrors life had thrown at him.

"I am Il Dottore, and these are my friendsGiuditta and Ciottolo," the telepath said."Will you tell us what to call you?"

The soft mumble made Il Dottore shake his head;surely no one would name a child Satan.He coaxed the boy into lifting his head and said,"How about you try telling me instead of my shirt?"

"Gaetan," the child said, scarcely louder.

"That's a good strong name," Il Dottore said,noting the flinch over 'strong' again."What bothers you about strength, I wonder?"

"Sometimes I'm too strong," Gaetan said.His memory filled with larger boys and menholding him down and hurting him -- and thenthe crunch of bone under his small brave fists,the shocking spray of blood. The wounds from that abuse ran all the way to the core of him,leaving his mind sore and fragile.

It was like seeing a classic statue defaced.

Il Dottore did what he could to soothe the worst of it,but repairing the damage would take time and care."When people are hurting you, then you can and shoulddo everything in your power to stop them," he said,splicing the message into the boy's mind where itwould start to stabilize the shifting pieces.

"But I can't control it," Gaetan whispered.

"You can learn to control it, just as you learned to walk when you were a toddler,"Il Dottore promised him. "I had to practicea long time to master my talent, too.Mind powers can be slippery things."Another tender caress demonstratedthe finesse he had achieved.

"I like when you do that," Gaetan said,clinging to Il Dottore both physically and mentally."It feels good inside my head."

The telepath stroked him more firmly,feeling the potential for great compassion andresilience under the layers of wreckage.

"I'm glad I could help," said Il Dottore."Shall we walk you home now, or do you have somewhere else safe to go?"That was fishing, plain and simple, because all the signs pointed out the unlikelihood of any happy answer.

Jumbled memories of a poor but loving familylost to tragedy tumbled over more recent onesof scrabbling for survival on the streets.

The harsh emotions shook his conscience -- the Family hadn't done enough to keep a lid on thingsin this area -- and left the telepath reeling.

This time it was the boy who kept Il Dottore upright.

"Are you all right? I didn't hurt you, did I?"Gaetan asked, his voice tight.

"You didn't hurt me, you were just thinking out loud -- very loud -- and I didn't like what I saw," Il Dottore said.

"I know I'm no good," Gaetan said, backing away."I'm a thief and a murderer. I got no job, so I have to beg and steal to survive, and the big men are always telling me to make myself useful but I don't wanna --"

Il Dottore pulled him right back into a hug. "Nonsense," he said firmly. "There is nothing wrong with you.If people forced you to do things which were illegal or hurtful, then the blame is theirs, not yours.I do wonder if they're all dead, though?"

They weren't.

Two more images floated to the surface of the boy's mind, gross faces distorted with rage.

Il Dottore memorized them, then sent themcarefully to Giuditta with the message,Check with the Boss first, but I expectthese fellows will wind up feeding the fishes.

Her silver half-mask with its pink-painted cheekshid much of Giuditta's expression, but her lips thinned and Il Dottore could feel the anger rolling off her as she gave him a grim nod.

"I will take care, and warn those on patrol," Giuditta said. Her hand touched the hilt of a hidden blade.

"You really don't care that I'm a ... I mean,about what I've done?" Gaetan said,looking up at Il Dottore.

"I wish you hadn't been pushed into it so young,"Il Dottore said, "but plenty of people have donedifficult things to stay alive. A personwhose conscience approves the necessitycan learn to make peace with it."

"Oh," Gaetan said softly. "I think I'd like that."

"Come home with me," Il Dottore invited,patting Gaetan on the shoulder. "I will keep you safe, and the house where I livebelongs to a large Family so there is plenty of room for you there."

"What ... what would I have to do for you ... to earn my keep?" Gaetan asked in a small voice.

Il Dottore knew that his first reaction -- nothing! --would never convince a street child, so insteadhe said lightly, "The same chores as the other boys,setting the table or fetching firewood, I imagine."

That sparked a sudden, fiercely treasured memoryof lying in front of a warm hearth playing marbleswith a stuffed toy for companionship.

Il Dottore brought out his handkerchief again,this time shaping it into a doll. He took offhis plain gold ring and popped it over the headto hold the simple design in place.

"Here, this is for you -- a little companyfor sleeping in a strange bed tonight, hmm?"Il Dottore said as he held it out.

"Come along, then," Il Dottore said, urging him gently in the direction of the safehouse where the boy could be cleaned and fed and assigned a room.

Gaetan's small, grimy hand slipped into hisas if it was always meant to be there.

* * *

Notes:

Il Dottore (Giuseppe Mondadori) -- Giuseppe is Italian, short and thin. He has olive skin, brown eyes, and black hair. He can make a puppet out of anything, even a handkerchief. He loves children and genuinely enjoys entertaining them. He'll empty his pockets for street children. His strength lies in subtlety. Il Dottore works for the Puppetmaster, who manipulates world politics and the world of organized crime, not with raw power, but with superior planning and influence. Il Dottore uses mind powers to influence people, but also heal mental or emotional injuries. The Family is known to be soup-friendly, and they act to quash mistreatment of anyone with superpowers. They also help provide a safety valve for human mischief while keeping a lid on the more corrosive aspects. Origin: Giuseppe was a street child, selected and trained as an apprentice of the Puppetmaster. Uniform: On duty he dresses as Il Dottore, The Doctor, in dark clothes and a long-nosed mask which is dark leather with silvery swans over the eyes. Off-duty he wears street clothes, usually trousers and a button-up shirt with a hat. Giuseppe dresses so that he almost blends in, just a little formal or quirky, as performers often do. He adores brightly colored scarves and ties, particularly Italian paisley or scroll patterns. He always has some kind of puppet with him, from elaborate marionettes to simple glove puppets. Qualities: Expert (+4) Puppeteer, Good (+2) Gentle, Good (+2) Organized Crime, Good (+2) WealthPoor (-2) Coping with ChaosPowers: Good (+2) Mind PowersMotivation: Control is strength.

Giuditta (Annetta Criscenti) -- She has fair skin, brown eyes, and long straight black hair. She comes from Buseto Palizzolo in Sicily. She excels at Paranza Corta, Sicilian knife fighting. She is married to Pulcinella, and they do not get along with Pinocchio. Giuditta serves the Puppetmaster as a spy and manipulator. Origin: Her father was a gambler who carried around a flask of "lucky" oil to rub on his hands, which she drank when she was a small child. It made her sick, but she gained superpowers.Uniform: She wears a silver half-mask with pink painted cheeks that matches Pulcinella's gold one. She favors varicolored clothing; even her leather coat is patchwork.Qualities: Expert (+4) Trickster, Good (+2) Leader, Good (+2) Limber, Good (+2) Paranza Corta, Good (+2) Political IntriguePoor (-2) Trust IssuesPowers: Good (+2) Luck ControlMotivation:One with the courage to laugh is master of the world almost as much as the person ready to die.

Ciottolo (Onofrio Baggio) -- He has olive skin, hazel eyes, and wavy brown hair. He is tall and thin. He comes from Milan, Italy. He is a fan of European football (what Americans call soccer). His power works by giving his skin a hard, pebbly texture when he feels threatened; it lasts up to an hour. This serves as Super-Armor and also increases the damage he can do with attacks. That's how he got his name, which means "pebble." Ciottolo serves as bodyguard for Il Dottore.Origin: When he was a young man, he intervened in a mugging, and the muggers tried to beat him to death with cobblestones. Some of the Marionettes interrupted and brought him to their healer. Although Onofrio did not show signs of his new power immediately, it emerged the next time something frightened him, and he decided to join the Family.Uniform: Usually an Italian business suit; he favors navy blue.Qualities: Expert (+4) Bodyguard, Good (+2) Fast, Good (+2) Football Fan, Good (+2) Urban NavigationPoor (-2) Sense of Self-PreservationPowers: Good (+2) StoneskinMotivation: To protect those who can't protect themselves.

Gaetan Costa -- He has olive skin, brown eyes, and straight dark brown hair. He is small and skinny for his age, but with big wrists and feet suggesting future growth spurts. Gaetan has a knack for languages. He has little control over his Super-Strength so far.Origin: A family tragedy left Gaetan alone on the streets of Italy as a young boy. He survived by begging, stealing, and committing other crimes. Sometimes he fell prey to older, larger people who wanted to take advantage of him. Around ten, the stress of one particularly awful struggle triggered his Super-Strength. At first, he had little control and left a few mangled bodies from people who tried to hurt him. This attracted the attention of Giuseppe Mondadori, then working as Il Dottore for the old Puppetmaster, and who later became the current Puppetmaster. Giuseppe took him off the street, brought him into the Family, patched up as much of the psychological damage as possible, and encouraged him to develop his skills.Uniform: Street clothes. Qualities: Good (+2) Backbone, Good (+2) Compassionate, Good (+2) Durable, Good (+2) Languages, Good (+2) Secret CodesPoor (-2) Needs AssurancePowers: Average (0) Super-StrengthMotivation: Survival.

* * *

"I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death."-- Leonardo da Vinci

Mind Powers include such things as Telepathy and Persuasion. Il Dottore prefers finesse over force. A telepath may have a psychic shield, but a similar effect may come from someone with a Tough or Iron Will quality. In general, people with superpowers have a better chance to resist because they can fight back on a similar level even without the same talent, whereas ordinary people without special training in mental skills tend to be a pushover. Gaetan's resistance demonstrates a strong mind and good potential.

Italy is just one of many countries with a population of street children. They typically suffer from abuse and neglect, which makes them reluctant to rely on adults even if help is offered, but those with some kind of positive family background have a better chance of capitalizing on such opportunities. Gaetan may be kind of a wreck at the moment but he has enough of a foundation to build on.

Child SizesA normal 10-year-old boy weighs between 40 to 90 lbs, and his height is between 50 and 58 inches. In the metric system used in Italy, 40 pounds = 18 kilograms and 50 inches = 127.00 centimeters.

>> It's dark, but only at the /beginning/. It ends VERY hopefully, very practically. <<

Sooth. I really enjoyed the chance to dig into character history here. They have some big challenges, but also the resources to meet them.

>> It's difficult, and maybe impossible to lie to a telepath, after all. <<

The general rule is that it's impossible, although there have been a few exceptions. More of a risk is self-delusion; it's not always possible to distinguish between the truth and a sincerely held but false belief.

>> Interesting /day/ to post it, but I will definitely ask for more stories in the arc next year! <<

Interestingly, I would trust the Puppetmaster far more than I do most current American leaders, simply because he is obviously capable of considering the long view. And in the long view, you don't consider even peons expendable or worthless; you don't eat the seed corn if you want to continue to have a harvest.

In elementary school, I had a friend of Italian extraction whose last name was DeGaetano. Just one of those odd coincidences...

>> Interestingly, I would trust the Puppetmaster far more than I do most current American leaders, <<

Me too. Both of them! I've actually written about two. The one appearing here is the "old" Puppetmaster, because this poem is set earlier. The one who has appeared in previous poems is Giuseppe, here still in his Il Dottore phase.

>> simply because he is obviously capable of considering the long view. And in the long view, you don't consider even peons expendable or worthless; you don't eat the seed corn if you want to continue to have a harvest. <<

I agree. That's also why the Marionettes are fairly civilized, for mobsters. They don't hesitate to break the law, but they also don't make trouble out of whole cloth. Because if you wreck your population base, there's nobody left to support you.

>> In elementary school, I had a friend of Italian extraction whose last name was DeGaetano. Just one of those odd coincidences... <<

No, it was definitely DeGaetano. And after being reminded of him, I tried Google-searching him, and there are several people with his name spelled that way. I can't tell if any of them are actually him, because they're all on sites like LinkedIn that make you sign up before you can see anything beyond the name.

>> How strange and sweet: a gang as protector, and this telepath/empath underboss so warm and protective. <<

Yay, I'm glad you liked it!

The core concept of a gang is banding together for protection and social support. Most gangs just do a crummy job of it. Even in our world, though, some of the top ones manage to pull together surprisingly well; in Terramagne, they do better. Il Dottore has a soft spot for kids in trouble, too.

>> • The football, of course, is European football (what Americans call soccer).> A problem of lore and disorder ;-)Me: "/What/ football?!" There's no "football" till about 20 lines later. <<

This is simultaneously dark and surprisingly sweet. The drawing out of Gaetan - not quite luring, as it didn't seem that evil - was cause for a case of the subtle creeps, and the references to conscience approving of actions made me immediately leap to Captain Benjamin 'I can live with it' Sisko a la Deep Space Nine (this'll make sense if you've seen the series), which really highlights the fact that the leading adult in this situation really is a supervillain slip-sliding along the greyscale and taking his young charge along at least a little ways. Il Dottore really does care about Gaetan's well-being though, doesn't he? I can't help but like him for the obvious mental and emotional care he shows here. Darn it, there I go liking black capes again.

>> The drawing out of Gaetan - not quite luring, as it didn't seem that evil - was cause for a case of the subtle creeps, <<

It is coaxing, rather than luring; but it's still a gray area. One important consideration is that Il Dottore primarily rearranged what was already there, rather than making major additions or subtractions in what Gaetan felt -- in essence, building on buried hopes -- and that the offer of assistance was honest rather than exploitative. The only thing added was something that any mindhealer would logically have ventured in that situation: the validity of self-defense.

Of course the darker side is handling someone's mind without informed consent. That's always dicey territory.

>> and the references to conscience approving of actions made me immediately leap to Captain Benjamin 'I can live with it' Sisko a la Deep Space Nine (this'll make sense if you've seen the series), <<

Yep.

>> which really highlights the fact that the leading adult in this situation really is a supervillain slip-sliding along the greyscale and taking his young charge along at least a little ways. Il Dottore really does care about Gaetan's well-being though, doesn't he?<<

Il Dottore is actually trying to stop the slide already in progress. Here is a kid who looks like anyone's meat, can punch through brick walls, and has almost no control. Trail of corpses is one of the least awful outcomes. 0_o Also the ordinary authorities have a hard enough time dealing with "normal" superkids and are completely unprepared to cope with this kind of situation. So, what do you do? First you have to establish trust, then meet basic needs, then offer coaching in control. But this is a freshly, thoroughly traumatized kid who's been living on the street a long time. The only ways to get through are spend a LOT of time (which they don't have), or cheat.

A superhero probably would've followed the rules, meaning the best, and gotten less positive results. Terramagne's saner supervillains are in the quirky position of handling situations where rules and laws aren't always getting the job done. Sometimes that helps. Sometimes it just facilitates the trouble into which people are determined to get.

Yes, it does bring Gaetan into contact with organized crime. That's actually an excellent fit for his superpower, personality, and experience to date. It would be very difficult for him to readjust to regular society, and that's true of street children in general. This is a way of providing a safe environment with people who won't demand that he be all sweetness and light just because of his age, and who know how to help with things like processing the fact you killed several people who were trying to hurt you.

>> I can't help but like him for the obvious mental and emotional care he shows here. Darn it, there I go liking black capes again. <<

:D Il Dottore has a soft spot for children, and so does the rest of that Family. They're all different, though. Later on, Shigeru Fukui has a thing for geeks and gizmos.

>> Unrelated, and like [personal profile] thnidu, I was left wondering. What football? <<

Fair points, the lot of them. I may have misread Il Dottore's references to conscience approving as a gradual lead toward darker activities with a clear conscience. I'm not sure if it was a misread; he is involved with organized crime, but then again, he may just be referencing self-defense, which is absolutely valid and necessary for Gaetan to appreciate.

>> I may have misread Il Dottore's references to conscience approving as a gradual lead toward darker activities with a clear conscience. <<

It's an option, not an obligation. That particular Family does not allow anyone to make a commitment until the age of 18. Not all mob families or other gangs are that careful. There are reasons why this one is up toward the top of the heap. They don't force anyone to join, they don't make trouble from scratch, and they don't tolerate thugs. They are professionals, and that requires a good deal of finesse. They just happen to view laws as ... not really rules, more like guidelines.

>> I'm not sure if it was a misread; he is involved with organized crime, but then again, he may just be referencing self-defense, which is absolutely valid and necessary for Gaetan to appreciate. <<

At this point, it is primarily about self-defense. But it's also about self-acceptance in general. Gaetan doesn't have one of the pretty, fluffy talents. He has super-strength and he came by it in a particularly horrible way. He needs to come to terms with that, regardless of what direction he takes later in life.

It's still a bit mixed, but on the whole it's more good than bad. There is a supervillain organization called Kraken which deliberately recruits from vulnerable, whereas this is simply opportunitistic, but even they don't take people by force. Human traffickers do, and almost everyone else agrees they're scum and will capture (superheroes) or kill (supervillains) the perpetrators when possible. Terramagne has the whole spectrum of good to evil, but it tilts toward good.

My interest is always piqued whenever there are telepaths and empaths, but...the mention of those strands and people being found by the particular 'flavour' of emotions...that's what evolved when I wrote a character who turned out to be an empath. When merely alive, she was a hypersensitive young woman who started to associate people with colours (a bit like me). After death, this develops into a fuller form of empathy. The colours evolve into auras and eventually, she's able to see strands and use them to amplify or dampen emotions. Another ghost is the empath of the precise kind of knowing the right thing to say or do to get the emotional kick she desires. Both get overloaded by extreme and mass negative emotions (also like me) and both are kind-hearted, which make them very dangerous. It may sound daft, but it feels gratifying to read that a highly-experienced writer also uses the same logic. Thank you, Nat.

>> My interest is always piqued whenever there are telepaths and empaths, <<

Yay! I have several of them in this setting.

>> but...the mention of those strands and people being found by the particular 'flavour' of emotions...that's what evolved when I wrote a character who turned out to be an empath. <<

That sounds cool.

>> When merely alive, she was a hypersensitive young woman who started to associate people with colours (a bit like me). <<

Another character here, Sintonizao, is synaesthetic and experiences voices as colors or flavors.

>> After death, this develops into a fuller form of empathy. The colours evolve into auras and eventually, she's able to see strands and use them to amplify or dampen emotions. <<

That makes sense.

>> Another ghost is the empath of the precise kind of knowing the right thing to say or do to get the emotional kick she desires. <<

Wow.

>> Both get overloaded by extreme and mass negative emotions (also like me) and both are kind-hearted, which make them very dangerous. It may sound daft, but it feels gratifying to read that a highly-experienced writer also uses the same logic. <<

Yep, any empath or telepath can get overloaded like that. Most of them have shields, but it's like a diving ball -- that only holds to a certain amount of pressure. In Terramagne the telepaths tend to be mentally fastidious, and won't enter another person's mind without invitation or urgent need. Mostly what they do is skim like this, searching for a person or a thought cast out into open air.

Helping Gaetan was risky, but Il Dottore wasn't about to leave him starving and miserable, even if that meant wading through some awful memories to shore up his mind. Il Dottore is kind-hearted at the core, but he has exactly zero patience with certain things. Later on, when he becomes the new Puppetmaster, he has a tendency to point at pedophiles and say, "That man there? Finalize him." It's not legal, but it does make sure they can't hurt anyone else.

My grandmother crocheted dolls and pigs for me, and sewed dolls, horses, and other toys. If a pattern came on the back of a bag of stuffing, I had at least one of it. I had storebought toys, too, but the homemade ones were more personal.

They also taught me how to improvise toys. I played ball games with a ball ... and whatever piece of wood I could get my hands on. I learned some interesting things about physics hitting a ball with a quarter-round rail that I wouldn't have learned with a bat. Which I also had, sometimes.

My grandmother sewed things for me, and my mama crocheted things. We also spent a lot of time outdoors, and played with whatever we could find. There were three girls and one boy, and we liked to play make-believe a lot. It taught me a lot about gender expression, actually. When puberty hit, I thought long and hard about who I was, and how I wanted to present myself to the world. I don't think I'd be as comfortable in my own body and gender as I am today, if it weren't for that.

I was always aware of being genderqueer. That was fine with everyone until I hit puberty. Then my grandmother starting trying to make me into a lady. It did not go well at all, at all. But I very much enjoyed growing up as a tomboy and getting to do all sorts of interesting things like gardening, fishing, and building birdhouses.

Well, I am a ciswoman, which I am so grateful for, but my gender expression is a lot more androgynous. I have some behaviors and thought processes that are considered "masculine". By the time anyone thought to make me a lady, my aunt had already taught me to be a gentleman.

Yeah, I found men's etiquette books much more practical than women's. His had things like "how to handle it when your friend mentions getting fertility therapy." (E.g. "I look forward to the happy event, Bob" not "The old gun firing blanks, eh?") Hers had advice on how to fold napkins. 0_o

I found the Boy Scout Handbook more useful than the Girl Scout Handbook for similar reasons.